'Tenfold More Wicked': Podcast digs into 1673 murder of one of Portsmouth's founders
PORTSMOUTH – Podcaster Kate Winkler Dawson has pushed her time machine to new heights. She takes her listeners back three-and-a-half centuries in telling the story of the controversial death of Rebecca Briggs Cornell, one of the town's founders.
The six-part story/investigation, titled “Fire and Brimstone,” is playing out as season 11 of “Tenfold More Wicked,” a Winkler Dawson podcast. A journalism professor at the University of Texas, Winkler Dawson combines nonfiction storytelling and investigative journalism in presenting true crime stories. By about 100 years, this is the furthest back in time Winkler Dawson has gone with “Tenfold More Wicked.”
“It's not for entertainment, for me,” Winkler Dawson, a Boston University graduate, said recently during a phone interview from Austin, Texas. “It's a way to introduce somebody to a theme that we see recurring in true crime. And in the case of Rebecca Briggs Cornell, there's a lot of talk about elder abuse. There is bad forensics, bad arson forensics. There's a lot of complicated layers – male masculinity in 17th century New England.
“It's bringing back people back to that time period. But it's sort of like 70 percent honey, 30 percent medicine.”
What happened to Rebecca Briggs Cornell
Thomas Cornell Jr., Rebecca's Briggs Cornell's son, was tried and found guilty of murdering his mother, and hung.
According to the Rhode Island Historical Society website, one of Thomas Cornell's sons discovered Rebecca's dead body, on fire, in the house where both Rebecca and Thomas and his family lived. That was on Feb. 8, 1673.
The original house burned down in 1889, with an almost carbon copy constructed on the site. That building today is the Valley Inn Restaurant, on West Main Road.
Valley Inn: Paranormal investigator Amy Bruni of Portsmouth explores evidence of the afterlife on Earth
Rebecca's death was originally ruled an accident. That official ruling was changed, the RIHS website notes, soon after testimony from one man saying that Rebecca had been fearing for her life, and from a John Briggs, in a deposition, stating that he had been visited by night by a ghost who told him, “I am your sister Cornell, and Twice sayd, see how I was Burnt with Fire.”
Rebecca's body was re-examined by a second coroner, the RIHS site says, who found an “odd wound” on her stomach.
Local history suggests that Thomas Cornell Jr. and his mother had a very strained relationship. In his will, Thomas Cornell Sr. had left the family property to Rebecca, who was to lease to Thomas Jr. Rebecca had the first floor to herself while Thomas Jr., his wife and children lived on the second floor. Some speculate that Thomas Jr. had fallen behind on lease payments.
How 'Fire and Brimstone' came about
Winkler Dawson said she learned of this regionally famous case through Carrie Nolte, who says she is a Rebecca descendant through the Briggs line. Winkler Dawson solicits idea from listeners at the end of her podcasts. Nolte is listed as a researcher for “Fire and Brimstone.”
The RIHS site terms Rebecca's Briggs origins as “murky at best” and said some believe that John Briggs, Thomas Cornell Jr.'s accuser, was Rebecca's brother by blood, others believe they were related by marriage only, and others contend they were related by both blood and marriage.
Nolte is one of the voices heard on the “Fire and Brimstone” podcast. Winkler Dawson said that she likes to have a relative on her podcast to serve as a family representative.
The “Fire and Brimstone” podcast episodes started on April 1, with succeeding episodes coming out each Monday.
Dawson Winkler said that her “Tenfold” podcasts are more about journalistic investigation than entertainment, though folks obviously find them entertaining.
She said the podcasts explore multiple tentacles of the big story, not just the whodunnit – if indeed anyone did it – nuts and bolts.
Connection to Fall River's most famous accused murderer, Lizzie Borden
According to the RIHS site, Thomas Cornell Jr. was likely executed on May 23, 1673, shortly before his second wife Sarah gave birth to their last daughter, whom she named Innocent.
This leads to a true crime connection that Hollywood couldn't make up.
Innocent, the site says, married into the Borden family, and her great-great-great-great granddaughter was Lizzie Borden, who was accused (and found not guilty) of murdering her parents in nearby Fall River, Mass., a case that has worldwide notoriety.
Asked her opinion on whether Thomas Cornell Jr. was guilty or not guilty of murdering his mother, Winkler Dawson said she leans toward the latter, with the death by accident. She said she interviewed a forensic chemist who explained it is very difficult to set fire to someone and kill them, that fire is probably the most unpredictable murder weapon there is.
But, she added, her producer, as well as Nolte, do not share her position.
“People will just have to judge for themselves,” said Winkler Dawson, who also hosts the "Tenfold More Wicked Presents: Wicked Words" and co-hosts another podcast, “Buried Bones.” “I'm a journalist, so I'm skeptical. And I feel like you have to have a lot of evidence of murder to convince me. But, boy, that might not always be the case.
“The jury's out. And we'll see what the jury, which is my listeners, we'll see what they say.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Tenfold More Wicked podcast takes on Rebecca Briggs Cornell murder
